Perhaps a bit overly-sentimental, but a true story. Dedicated to Anne Rager and her mother, Jean Rager. An experiment, too, with metaphor: circles and camera. See if it works. We now know that under-the-eye shadows, if not from lack of sleep, are something as simple as food allergy.

ANNIE'S EYES

Her mother obsessed over the dark semi-circles
under Annie's eyes, when she was three, seven, ten.
She'd never get a man.

The shadows show in every picture taken
of a child otherwise happy. At thirty, agile with make-up, Annie resembled Marilyn Monroe.